Review: "Succession" Season 4 delivers a flawless, devastating finale

Ending a prestige television drama is notoriously difficult—just ask the creators of Game of Thrones. Yet, Jesse Armstrong and the writers of Succession managed to land the plane with absolute, devastating perfection. Season 4 abandons any lingering hope that the Roy siblings could become decent people, forcing them into a brutal, final cage match for control of Waystar Royco following the sudden, shocking death of their father, Logan Roy. The third episode, "Connor's Wedding," is a monumental achievement in television, capturing the disorienting, suffocating panic of unexpected grief in real-time.

The acting in this final season is peerless. Kieran Culkin transforms Roman from a witty court jester into a deeply broken, volatile child desperately seeking validation from a ghost. Sarah Snook delivers a masterclass in suppressed panic as Shiv realizes she is being outplayed in the boys' club she thought she commanded. But it is Jeremy Strong’s Kendall who anchors the tragedy. His desperate, hollow pursuit of the CEO title is agonizing to watch, culminating in a finale that fundamentally breaks him.

While the middle of the season briefly spins its wheels during the Norwegian retreat and the election coverage episodes (which occasionally feel a bit too close to real-world anxieties to remain satirical), every single narrative thread is pulled tightly together for the boardroom finale. It is a cynical, pitch-black conclusion that argues trauma is cyclical and wealth is a prison. A masterpiece.